So we just got transfer calls….I’ve been in Iksan for 2 transfers now, my companion has been here for 5. We were expecting me to go senior and him to be leaving. But that’s not at ALL what happened. Do you have any guesses? Here it is…

I’m going to Cheonan and being the Assistant Zone leader there, and Elder Orr is going to Suncheon…that means Iksan is being
whitewashed….and Elder Orr is going to whitewash HIS area as well. We are now in the process of getting everything prepared for the next elders. It’s in Okay position, but we need to call our investigators and let them know about everything, then make sure our area books are in good condition, and contact bishop and the ward mission leader and just a BUNCH of stuff! Anyway, this week has been a week of miracles. It’s just too bad I won’t see the fruit of it all. Darn. But I can see that the Lord prepares His people and His areas. These things literally came out of nowhere. Last week, we (as a result of all your wonderful prayers…) found 2 families!!! That’s right, 2!!!!! Both of them are wonderful people that have an interest in the gospel and have good morals and suprisingly have known the missionaries for a long time. I will continue to pray for them, they’re wonderful! Then, out of the blue, we received a referall from the mission office, but we haven’t been able to contact her yet, but still a referall! We were able to meet with Edward, the canadian, before he left to Canada for a few weeks. He is SO amazing, his sincere desire to know the truth is outstanding and I hope I’ll be able to see him again…we also met with all our other investigators this week, which is a miracle in and of itself. So, this week was truly outstanding. One I will always remember. We’ve worked hard here, it’s been tough, but it has been truly prepared. I hope to hear in the future how everything turns out.

Anyway, it’s getting hot here in Korea. I heard it’s really hot over there in America. Here, we have Cicadas…..I call them the choirs of hell. ALL the time, EVERYWHERE, and SUPER loud. It’s nuts. I can take the blistering heat or the humid that you can see, but the
cicadas….oh the cidadas.

On a different note, Mom, here in Korea and as a missionary, it’s really hard to get your veggies. So I was wondering if you can send me some quick or easy recipes I can do for dinner. But there’s a catch, fruits, butter, cheese, milk products in general(except for milk), meat and some vegetables are WAY expensive. So, here’s a list of NON-expensive vegetables:

Onions, garlic, zucchini, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, green onions, cabbage, lettuce(only from street “vendors”[grandmas]) and cucumbers. Everything else, including bell peppers, are pretty expensive for missionaries. Fruit in general is expensive, except if you can get a sale on Kiwis or bananas or grapes. I was also wondering if you could send me these recipes:

Baking powder biscuits, hash, a basic soup recipe, rice pudding, and a muffin recipe or a cookie recipe. That would be Amazing!! Anyway, thank you so much! I gotta go. I love you all so much!! We’ll see how Cheonan is like!! Talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Smith

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

This week was \so cool! Just last night we had missionary coordination with our bishop and our ward mission leader. We had sam gyup sal for dinner!! Ummmmmm. Yummy. it’s like thick, thick bacon cooked right before you eat it. How you eat it is you take the meat and you put it on a piece of lettuce, put some rice on it, then what ever else you want to. I usually put some 고추장(hot pepper sauce), or 쌈장(soybean suace and hot pepper sauce??) on it. It’s awesome!! Anyway, we talked about Pres Shin’s new goal for the Daejeon misison area, that is, 2000 members for each stake. Right now, our stake has 300 or so members in it….we have a long way to go, and we have to work SO hard. But anywya, we talked about our investigators and member work and some other things.

While we went to bishops house, I had to sit on a pot. Haha! So, our ward mission leader took us to the house, which is SOOO far away, and he didn’t have any seats in the back of his van, so….I sat on a pot. it was so hard. I kept on rolling back and forth and almost fell off at times. Haha! Anyway, then when we got to bishops house…so there’s this one thing about Korea and spiders. I’m sure Spencer knows what I’m tlaking about…they get HUGE. And so when we got there, we were SURROUNDED with these HUGE spiders…Iwas terrified. As we walked around the bishops farm, I saw the most hideous and freaky looking spiders I have ever seen. They were in my nightmares alright… Anywya, our investigators are great, not much to talk about with them, it’s always slow with them it seems like. Okay, gotta go. I Love you all!!

Love,

Elder V. LeVan Smith

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Well, happy birthday AMERICA!! I wanted so bad to say that on the 4th….it’s a little awkward though…anyway…

Here in Korea rainy season finally came. It was supposed to come a couple weeks ago, but it didn’t…so it finally came. And let me tell you….it came. This past week, I have not felt dry. Everything is wet. My clothes are wet, my sheets are wet, my clothes don’t dry when I pull them out of the washer, my shoes are wet, and I went through about 3 umbrellas already….so that’s 장마.(Jang-ma, rainy season) Anyway, this week for missionary work has been, to tell the truth, hard. We had to drop a couple investigators, and we couldn’t meet with the ones we had. Koreans are REAAALLY busy. I don’t get it. Why are they so busy? Anyway, this past week has been one on my knees so to say. There needs to be a miracle. Bad. We’ve been working SO hard, everyday we come back EXHAUSTED. We try everything we can to meet with investigators, but there’s always something that prevents them from coming. But on the bright side of things, we met with our new Mission president and his wife this past thursday. They are amazing!!!!! They spoke basically the entire time, in Korean. I was suprised how much I knew! I understood about 50% of what they were saying!!! It was awesome! Anyway, for a 70yr old, he had a TON of energy. I can tell that things are going to change and pick up here in the Daejeon area of Korea! Anyway, sorry I can’t write more. I loved all the letters!! Don’t worry if you can’t send one, it’s ok. I know you’re busy, I still love you all! I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder V. LeVan Smith

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

So this week, we will lose one of our most beloved people here in the mission. Our mission President, Pres. Furniss and his beloved wife, Sis. Furniss are leaving to return home today. Awwww, darn. But, they are being immediately replaced by my outstanding and amazing MTC President and his wife, President and Sister Shin!! Rendered in Korean, “신회장님과 신자매님” (President 신, pron. “sheen”). They are both native Koreans. He was the VICE PRESIDENT of SAMSUNG!!!! So I guess you could say they are, “부자”. Or, rich. They are the sweetest couple and he is fluent in both korean and english. He is in his 70s and she is in her 60s. I am SO excited for them to come here, we’re going to go down to Gwangju this next week to do an “인사 tour. An
“introduction”, greeting tour. I can’t wait to see them!!!! They are both so amazing! But I’m also really sad that the Furniss’s are leaving. They were amazing to me and gave me so much advice and counsel. I loved hearing from them. They will be missed. Anyway, I forgot to mention this past week about our investigators here in Iksan. We met with our Canadian friend, Edward this past saturday. It was kinda disappointing though. So, the past couple visits we had with him, he was AMAZING! He was searching for the truth and was looking around all the churches and school of thoughts etc, and so he decided to meet with us as well. We gave him a BoM and invited him to read and pray about it and meet with us the next week. He accepted and over the next couple meetings, we set a Baptismal date with him!!!!!! But, then we found out that his boss at work, an english acadamy, is his preacher at the Baptist church he attends, and he teaches the Sunday school there at 10am, the same time as our sacrament meeting… So basically he said, “if I start attending this church, I lose my job.” So this past meeting, we pleaded with him to at least keep meeting with us and not to close the door just yet. This next month, he’s going to go on a vacation back to Canada, so we asked him to attend church in Canada at least once and tell us how it was when he gets back. So we’ll see how that turns out. But, we had to drop his date unfortunately. Darn. Anyway, we’re trying all we can to get our members to meet with our investigators. That is our #1 focus over everything right now. That reminds me, how many of you saw the World-wide leadership broadcast about missionary work this past week? Cause it has everything to do with MEMBER WORK. Ok, this is my plea as a missionary, if you don’t have a friend to think about sharing the gospel to, GET ONE NOW. There will be missionaries ALL over the globe thirsting for referrals and pleading for people to meet. Missionaries are not just robots walking on the streets or knocking on doors. We are TEACHERS, we PREACH the gospel of Jesus Christ, we SHARE our testimonies with PEOPLE. This is my PLEA, start thinking about someone, NOW. Please. Start praying for them. Serve them, give them something to think about, share your testimony. Those aren’t hard. You don’t have to teach them the lessons, that’s why we have missionaries. Anyway, please start thinking about someone because there will be missionaries all over the world starving for people to meet if you don’t.

Ok, gotta go. I LOVE YOU ALL!! Have a fantastic week!!

Love,

Elder Smith

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.